Pleasantburg Veterinary Clinic will be introducing our friendly staff to you in our newsletters. Meet our newest groomer but long-time employee and friend, Misti Konduros (formerly known as Misti Madden… she’s a newlywed!), who is a wonder woman around PVC and recently began grooming here. We had a conversation as she and co-groomer Susan Gerish were “prettying up” some dogs during a busy Wednesday with a yippy schnauzer in the background. (…which Misti pointed out that she was proud of his ears because “Schnauzer ears are hard to do!”)
Misti has her certificate in Applied Science with a Major in Veterinary Assistance from Greenville Technical College, and has currently completed 450 supervised training hours in grooming at Pleasantburg Veterinary Clinic. She has a big heart for animals so working in the veterinary line of work made sense for her. When Misti began her career at Pleasantburg Veterinary Clinic, she cleaned on the veterinary side of the hospital and kennels for the first couple of months. She then began bathing, assisting Doc with office calls as a veterinary assistant, and was cross-trained as a receptionist.
“If you follow me around during the day, you’ll get exhausted. I’m multitasking. I’m calling people completing follow-up calls for surgery and sick patients, answering the phone, grooming, in the examination rooms… I’m all over the place,” Misti laughs. “I’ve been grooming about 2 years. I began grooming a family friend’s malteses at their request and my experience grew from there. When I was in school, I took a bathing class for grooming for extra credit hours. My teacher suggested that I go for a double certificate in grooming but it didn’t appeal to me at the time. So really, I didn’t choose grooming; it chose me.”
Susan, who has been responsible for overseeing Misti’s training work, has nothing but praise for her: “Well, she didn’t really require much training. I just gave her a few tips and that was it. She’s a natural,” Susan beamed. “When you’ve been grooming as long as I have, and you see someone who’s got the natural talent with the animals, you just want to hold onto them and not let them go! Misti is good natured to the dogs, she doesn’t mind getting dirty (because this is a dirty job), and she is a hard worker!”
I wanted to know more about this “dirty” line of work. Misti indulged me with a story. “One time I was washing this big Great Dane, and there was no way to get him in the tub so we had to strap him on the outside of it. He was huge. I rolled up my pants legs and I just went to town! I was soaked from head to toe afterwards,” she sighed. “But by George, he was clean! Washing that dog was a sight to see.”
The energy back in grooming is really fun… these ladies are upbeat and you can really tell they love their job. Misti and Susan recounted funny grooming stories for me, like when Misti was “new” on the grooming job.
“I’ll tell you my most anxious day,” Misti recalled with hilarity. “When I first started grooming, and I came in and there was 11 or 12 grooms on the books and Susan was out (which never happens). This was my third or fourth time ever grooming here. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ But I just took it one dog at a time. All of the staff jumped in and helped. I thought ‘I may be here till 10’oclock at night, but it’ll get done.’ All of the dogs were completed and I was out at 5:30! I knew that was a day that would either make me or break me. I didn’t have time to eat or anything. It showed me what I was made of!”
Misti was loving on the dogs the entire time I had the conversation with her. “I love all dogs that come in here. And I’m sorry if they leave a little more spoiled than they came in. I just love em.” She is beginning to get a steady client base, because once you meet Misti, you’ll want your pet to come see her again! She treats them just as if they were here own. “I don’t just have three dogs. I’ve got a lot of dogs. I love them all,” she said with enthusiasm. And that’s the kind of groomer I want to take care of my dog, don’t you?!